Maple Leafs tickets steeped in history

The Toronto Maple Leafs will celebrate their history this season during their Centennial Anniversary, and it even will be on display on their tickets.

Toronto's season-ticket booklet pays homage to 100 years of Maple Leafs hockey with prominent quotes, images of legendary players and artwork on each game ticket.

"The concept was to capture the best quotes over the past 100 years that best represented the characteristics of what it means to be a Toronto Maple Leaf, focusing on ones that related to pride, honor and courage," Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment creative director Matt Coyle said. "It was not a ranked list of the top 41 players or quotes, but rather a way for us to share with our fans our team in a way they've never seen before."

The Maple Leafs summoned the help of their historian, Mike Ferriman, to collect the famous quotes. Art director Louis Cohen, designer Anthony Ruggiero and illustrator Conrad Garner fused the quotes into imagery that pays homage to Maple Leafs past and present.

Rare photographs are included throughout the book. Doug Gilmour, Curtis Joseph, George Armstrong and Dave Keon are among the former Maple Leafs greats featured, and defenseman Morgan Rielly and forwards Nazem Kadri and Auston Matthews have quotes on the tickets for the 41 regular-season games at Air Canada Centre.

For their home opener against the Boston Bruins on Saturday, the Maple Leafs went with a silver ticket and the No. 100 inside their 31-point logo for the game. The Prince of Wales Trophy and Stanley Cup make appearances on game tickets for potential Eastern Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final games in Toronto.

The end result is a keepsake to mark the anniversary and for fans to cherish.

"The printing finishes we applied elevated the finished piece, and we couldn't be happier with the final result," Coyle said. "The goal was to create a collectible package that was worthy of this historic moment for our franchise, and I believe we did that."